Ep. 71: Wicked by Gregory Maguire, Winnie Holzman, and Stephen Schwartz

Of Slippers and Spindles - Fairy Tale Retellings and Adaptations in Books, Film, and Theatre

"Are people born wicked? Or is wickedness thrust upon them?"
We're nearing the end of the Yellow Brick Road! For our final week in The Wizard of Oz Month, Drew and Cassie discuss Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire as well as the 2003 Broadway musical adaptation with a book by Winnie Holzman and music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz, originally starring Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth. Wicked follows the story of Elphaba, a young woman who was born in the land of Oz with green skin, chronicling her friendship with a girl named Glinda, her antagonism with the Wizard of Oz, and how she became known as the Wicked Witch of the West. The book and the musical are vastly different stories, so after discussing our personal connections to Wicked, we work our way through the plot of the book first and then the musical. We discuss Maguire's decision to make Oz dark and gritty, the origins of Elphaba's name, some of the book's struggles, Maguire's intentional word usage, Chekhov's gun, some of our favorite quotes and lyrics, No Fly shows, the fun and obvious foreshadowing, Glinda's development, and we end it all by getting super emotional about For Good. Plus, we reveal which fairy tale we'll be talking about for the month of May!
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Music: Through The Woods by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com